It’s official (for a while now, but the blog is constantly neglected): we’re moving to Paris on the 1st of October! After a strenuous academic job search in Europe that started last October, things are finally settled: I accepted a researcher position at INRIA Paris-Rocquencourt. The position is called “chargé de recherche (CR)” in French, is permanent, and seems to offer perfect job security (French civil servant position). And given that this is INRIA, the competition was fierce, and also painful, since some of the competitors are good friends, who are, as US people might put it, at least as awesome as I am.

The INRIA team I’ll be joining focuses on security (security protocols and web security in particular). And to make things even better, the team is located at Place d’Italie in the center of Paris. We already got a short-term lease for an apartment that’s close to Place d’Italie for the first 2 months, but getting a long term lease in Paris afterwards is going to be a big challenge. Beate’s French skills will help a lot, and I hope to start learning French really soon now (at the moment I only know a tiny bit of culinary French).

Anyway, starting on Friday we’re going on a big adventure trip to many cool US national parks (Zion, Grand Canyon, Bryce, Grand Teton, Yellowstone, and Glacier) and taking the last chance to enjoy the wonderful nature here. Our stay in the US was awesome, but we are also very happy to return to our many cool friends and family in Europe. So long, and thanks for all the fish!